Mat-Su schools open to students for first time since March

PALMER — After Mat-Su Borough School District schools opened their doors to 11,741 students enrolled for in-person classes on Wednesday, the MSBSD School Board held a meeting on Wednesday night.

New Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani provided an outline of the Health Advisory Team’s criteria as they meet daily at 3:30 p.m., to determine risk level in specific areas. The Health Advisory team includes district administration, community health members and a nurse liaison. The team looks at operational zones each day. Trani used an example of the Mat-Su Borough as a whole and it’s near daily fluctuations between low and high risk. As chair of the COVID-19 taskforce at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, Dr. Tom Quimby spoke during public testimony.

“We want our kids to get back to school. We want them to get education for many reasons but we need to be smart about this and we need to be careful,” said Quimby. “There are no proven health detriments and really as a physician none, if any reasons why someone couldn’t wear a mask.”

Trani said that more elementary and middle school aged children are opting to stay at home where more older secondary students are opting for in-person instruction. As of Tuesday, 16,759 students had verified enrollment in MSBSD schools, but Trani said that number was bound to change daily as more than 400 students had been added since the numbers were compiled. Of those 16,759, 70 percent chose in-person instruction while 30 percent chose a distance delivered option. Trani said that 18 percent of students are receiving at-home instruction from teachers within MSBSD schools, accounting for nearly 3,000 students. Just over 2,000 students are going with a more traditional at-home model of correspondence learning. Trani said that MSBSD schools were unlikely to meet their projected enrollment of over 19,000 students even though some grades may have more students than projected with new students moving to the district. Currently, 1,832 students are not yet registered but have records with the school district. Trani could not offer any numbers for absent students after the first day of in-person instruction in Alaskan schools since March, but said that tracking absenteeism will be crucial in discovering outbreaks.

“Simply by us keeping track of our absentee rate, we can get a heads up that maybe something is getting into a school. So it’s been suggested to us by our experts in public health that if you were to have five students in grade school that go home in one day with a fever that they all developed, that’s probably reason enough to take a two to five day break,” said Trani.

Mat-Su Health Foundation CEO Elizabeth Ripley called in to offer her thanks to the school district during public testimony.

“Thank you for endorsing and enforcing a mask mandate for students, staff and teachers third grade and higher. You’re helping to prevent morbidity and mortality for older adults and other vulnerable populations. Your actions are literally saving lives,” said Ripley. “We are all forging a difficult path through the worst public health crisis in decades. This is a time to band together, to care for one another, to use our vast resources and liberties to protect the most vulnerable among us. It is hard and uncomfortable but together we can actually stop this virus. Facemasks are a crucial element in our arsenal and every person can do their part here in Mat-Su through this low impact, cost effective measure called for in your policy.”

Though many were thankful for the mask mandate announced by the school district and subsequent guidance on how to handle students who will not comply, some members of the public still disagree with the mask mandate. Chris Tyree spoke directly after Ripley.

“You have no constitutional power at all over the people on this mandate with the masks. What that lady just said is propaganda in my opinion,” said Tyree. “What was your authority, you have none. You have none and you’d better tell the kids the school system where my kids are that my kids don’t have to wear a mask.”

Trani said that 500 teachers had been trained in APEX and 50 CTE teachers had also been trained. Trani hopes that APEX will be a valuable tool during in-person instruction in the classroom and make a transition to remote education easier in the event of an outbreak. While the Mat-Su Educators Association remains without a contract, the school district did modify the schedule for secondary school students, which Trani reported favorably on.

“It was a calmer feel there were less transitions which was the whole point of it,” said Trani.